From Light to Dark Read Online Free

mumbled, her mouth audibly full of food, “I was hanging out at the Pyre yesterday, and you’ll never guess what I saw!”
    “What?”
    “It’s all roped off. Maybe fifty guards standing around. With flamethrowers .”
    Caer said nothing for a moment, and when she spoke again, it was with an unsteady voice. “Flamethrowers? Are you sure?”
    “Yeah,” said Vul, whose mouth was apparently full of fruit again. “They won’t let anyone near. They wouldn’t say what happened, either. Something big, I’ll bet, to bring out fifty guards with flamethrowers!”
    Eref held his breath. Something big had happened there. He had happened.
    He had fallen through from Light World.
    “How long have they been there?” Caer’s voice shook more dramatically, and Eref wondered how long it would be before Vul noticed something was wrong. His heart sped up again.
    “Since three days ago, at least. Some kids said a couple of the guards were talking about two intruders from Light World. I guess they’re trying to trap them, or something. Isn’t that crazy ?”
    “Two?”
    Eref’s fingers pressed deeper into the sides of the fluffy chair, every muscle in his body tense.
    “Yeah. I don’t know how they got here. Pretty awesome, huh?”
    “Two?” It sounded as if Caer didn’t know what else to say. And Eref didn’t know what to think. Had they just made an error? No one else had fallen through – had they?
    “I wonder how you kill a Light Person, anyway,” Vul mused. “The Pyre probably doesn’t hurt them, since they’re just big, nasty balls of fire themselves.”
    “No they aren’t,” Caer blurted out. Eref bit the inside of his cheek, willing her to be silent. Change the subject. Leave the house. Anything.
    “Oh, yeah? And you’re some kind of expert?”
    After another awkward silence, Caer said, “What if they’re just people? Just the same as us, only in a different world?”
    Vul laughed. Her voice sparkled like Caer’s, though a little deeper. “Well, this is our chance to find out! When can we sneak over to the Pyre to see what’s going on?”
    “Are you out of your mind? No way!”
    “Come on,” Vul said. “Live a little. It’s not like we have much time left, anyway.”
    “Don’t talk like that.”
    Eref stared in the direction of the voices, willing his eyes to see, but nothing appeared. Only the sounds of their voices and the warm smell of this room like wet earth after the rain. He was stranded and broken, unable to defend himself. What could he do, even if the Dark People burst in right now with their flamethrowers?
    Suddenly, something small and furry brushed against his leg. Startled, he jerked in the chair and let out a muffled cry.
    “What was that?” Vul’s voice sounded much closer to the door, and Eref snapped his mouth shut.
    The furry thing rubbed back and forth against Eref’s legs. He stood frozen in place, his heart banging painfully inside him.
    “No, Vul,” Caer said.
    “Do you have someone over?”
    “I—”
    The furry creature at Eref’s legs started licking his feet. He scrambled backward and bumped into a wall that felt and smelled as though it were made of tree bark.
    “I thought you were just busy around the house,” Vul said, her voice icy. “My birthday’s coming. We were supposed to spend time together, and you had someone over instead?”
    “Vul, I—”
    The furry thing stopped licking Eref’s feet and began to slide its long, thin body up his legs, across his belly, over his chest, and onto his shoulders. Eref shuddered. It licked his ears.
    “My birthday, Caer. My eighteenth birthday. Don’t you even care?”
    “That’s not fair,” Caer said.
    Then, right into Eref’s slobbery ear, the furry creature shouted, “It’s time for dinnerrr! Caerrr! Caerrr!” It sounded like a person speaking with a mouth full of water.
    “Just a minute, Atc!” Caer answered.
    “Atc?” Vul paused and then laughed. “It was just Atc?”
    Eref heard Vul’s